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Book Information

Title:

Ars Topica

Subtitle:

The Classical Technique of Constructing Arguments from Aristotle to Cicero

Ars Topica is the first full-length study of the nature and development oftopoi, the conceptual ancestors of modern argument schemes, betweenAristotle and Cicero.

Aristotle and Cicero configured topoi in a way that influenced thesubsequent tradition. Their work on the topos-system grew out of aninterest in creating a theory of argumentation which could stand betweenthe rigour of formal logic and the emotive potential of rhetoric. Thissystem went through a series of developments and transformations resultingfrom the interplay between the separate aims of gaining rhetoricaleffectiveness and of maintaining dialectical standards.

Ars Topica presents a comprehensive treatment of Aristotle’s and Cicero’smethods of topoi and, by exploring their relationship, it illuminates anarea of ancient rhetoric and logic which has been obscured for more thantwo thousand years.

Through an interpretation which is philologically rooted in the historicalcontext of topoi, the book lays the ground for evaluating the relevance ofthe classical approaches to modern research on arguments, and at the sametime provides an introduction to Greek and Roman theory of argumentationfocussed on its most important theoretical achievements.